On Saturday, 10th August, 2002, the day
dawned bright and clear for the 57th Annual Fergus Scottish
Festival and Highland Games in Fergus, Ontario, a small town located
about 140 km west of Toronto, which has hosted the event in Canada since
1945, the largest Highland Games with a current attendance of between 30
and 40,000 people. Visitors from across Canada and the adjacent U.S.
States of Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York are attracted by the
three-day celebration of Scottish heritage in a town founded and settled
by Scots, which retains its Scottish links enthusiastically by staging a
festival that every year attracts an attendance ten times greater than
the population of Fergus. Almost everyone in Fergus is involved with
planning and staging the event, held on the grounds of the Fergus
Community Centre.

The major heavy events competition attracts
competitors from all over North America and Scotland. Highland Dancing
competitions in all age groups attract participants from around the
world with several stages in use from dawn to dusk. The pipe band
competition is for bands primarily in the Grades 2, 3 and 4 categories,
since the event falls on the same day as the World Pipe Band
Championship in Glasgow, Scotland, and best of the Grade One bands are
competing overseas. Scottish and Celtic music groups perform at several
venues around the site and attract large audiences. The vendors area
includes tents selling all manner of Scottish goods and traditional
Scottish food and beverages to the visitors, many of Scottish descent,
but most of whom have never visited the homeland of their forefathers
(and foremothers).

Exhibitors and competitors begin to arrive around
dawn (5:30am) to prepare for the opening of the gates to the public at
9:00am. Tents, tables and chairs are provided on a daily rental basis by
the organizers, and are in place before exhibitors arrive, which
encourages participation by clan societies and commercial vendors. Most
exhibitors are set up before the gates open and visitors can spend the
entire day absorbing Scottish culture, to their hearts desire. The
ongoing success of the Fergus Scottish Festival suggests that the
organizers understand what people want to see, and they ensure that
exhibitors and participants are well cared-for, so the event has
continued to grow with every passing year.

My
wife Marie, seen here staffing the Clan Fraser Society of Canada tent,
is more adept at getting our Scottish colleagues to relax. She made the
rounds of the clan displays before the crowds converged on the Avenue of
the Clans area. Apologies to those clans not represented in these photos
– shown in alphabetical order – as some friends were still setting up
displays, and there wasn’t time to revisit.

Clan Displays

Clan Elliot

Clan Fraser

Clan Fraser

Clan Fraser

Clan Gordon

Clan Graham

Clan Hunter

Clan Kerr

Clan MacInnes

Clan MacKenzie

Clan MacKintosh

Clan MacLachlan

Clan MacNeil

Clan Moffatt

Clan Murray

Clan Ross

Clan Sinclair

Stuart of Bute

Clan Wallace

2007 Fergus Scottish Festival and
Highland Games

By Marie Fraser, Clan
Fraser Society of Canada

The annual Fergus
Highland Games on Saturday, 11 August in Fergus, Ontario, Canada were
well attended again this year. The Avenue of the Clans had 46 clan
tents as well as Clans and Scottish Societies of Canada and the School
of Scottish Studies at the University of Guelph.

I think that many of the people who staffed clan tents at
Fergus expected to see Alastair McIntyre, owner of the massive Electric
Scotland web site, arrive with his trusty camera, to take pictures of
the festivities. However, it appears that Alastair failed to show up at
Fergus because of technical problems encountered with his web site,
which required his attention at home. I sent Alastair a copy of the
photo of his MacIntyre clansman, taken in the Clan Fraser tent, and, at
Alastair’s request, agreed to prepare a brief report and to share some
of the other pictures – hence the proliferation of images of my husband,
Neil Fraser, Chairman, Clan Fraser Society of Canada…

The guest author was Diana Gabaldon, whose legion or readers
of her “Outlander” series of novels always increase attendance,
particularly of younger people who show up to hear Diana in person and
have her autograph one or more of her books. While Diana’s books and
characters are fictional, they generate interest in Scottish history and
the clan tents are usually busy after her talks, especially the Clan
Fraser tent where young readers go to look for information on Diana’s
fictional hero Jamie Fraser.

Don’t forget to register for the School of Scottish Studies
Fall Colloquium at the University of Guelph (Ontario) on Saturday,
September 29, 2007. The Fall Colloquium has book displays and sales
from Scottish Studies Collection and more… For information on the fee
and programme for the all-day session, including lunch & refreshments,
check out their web site or send an email to
Scottish@uoguelph.ca

Marie at the Clan Fraser Society of Canada tent, late afternoon
(starting to fade rapidly in the Southern Ontario heat)

Neil visited several of
the clan tents at Fergus and chatted with other clan officials at
length, but his excuse for not taking any pictures was, of course, that
he didn’t have the camera with him…

Congratulations to
Andrew Campbell, Avenue of the Clans Chairman – with a wee bit of help
from his Dad, veteran John Campbell – and all the loyal volunteers who
are, no doubt, already making plans for next year’s event.

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